Teens Learn the Skills to Build Futures

STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGERKendrick Johnson, 19, carries a cut board through a Gentilly home being rebuilt in part by the YouthBuild Helping Hands trades program, which is operated by Catholic Charities.

A common complaint among New Orleans' top craftsmen is the lack of a new generation to take the reins when much of the old guard retires over the next decade.

"There's not a whole lot of younger craftsmen coming up, " stonemason Alvarez Walter said in a February interview. "It's like a little core that's still hanging on."

Trade learning was traditionally all in the family, with skills passed down through the generations and by families of craftsmen often living in the same neighborhood. But with many craftsmen's children attending college instead of learning trades, the generation gap continues to grow, and it's up to technical colleges, training programs and good old-fashioned apprenticeships to fill it.

STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGERSamuel Parker, 16, hammers a board to the floor. Construction trainer Edward Smith, top, and Chris Rouge, 17, right, are also working on the house.

Enter YouthBuild Helping Hands, a six-month construction-training program organized by Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans. Since May, the program has been working with 25 young adults, ages 16 to 24, to lay a foundation for a career in the building arts.

The curriculum is in two parts, with one group working on a Catholic Charities-sponsored job site to put their new skills to use, and another group taking classes to obtain a high school equivalency degree. The two groups switch off halfway through the program, and everyone attends Friday "life skills" classes, which focus on interpersonal communication and conflict resolution, said Pamela Pittman, director of the YouthBuild program.

The participants are working toward certification with the National Center for Construction Education and Research and the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Pittman said.

Once participants have their degrees, certifications and on-the-job skills, the program will help place them in full-time jobs, she said.

The program is sponsored and financed by the national group YouthBuild USA, the Department of Labor and Goodwill Industries International; the students receive a small stipend for their work.

STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGERCatholic Charities, which runs Operation Helping Hands and the YouthBuild program, sponsors the Gentilly home the students are working on.

The students were doing just that this past week at a single-family home in Gentilly that had been gutted to the beams. After learning to adjust and equip their new toolbelts, the group went to work putting down new plywood over the floor joists.

As the students cut the plywood to fit each room's dimensions, the day's task was a good test of their measuring skills, said construction trainer Edward Smith.

"It looks pretty easy, but there's a lot more to it than that -- just knowing how to examine the project, how to evaluate it, " Smith said.

In addition to measuring, the course has also gone over basic demolition, proper tool use and safety, Sheetrocking and door and window installation. By the end of the program, "They would pretty much know how to do a small structure, " Smith said.

YouthBuild targets high school dropouts and aims to equip them with a basic education and construction skills, Pittman said.

But students can build on the foundation to acquire refined, specialty craftsmanship in time; and from the sounds of the students' enthusiastic hammering and sawing in Gentilly, a new generation of craftsmen could be rising.

"It's better than doing nothing -- gets you out of trouble, " said Samuel Parker, 16, as he nailed down a sheet of plywood. "I want to feel like I can build my own house, you know?"